Burmese Ginger Salad

Southeast Asian salads from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Burma (at least these are the ones that I am familiar with) share common ingredients and flavor in my opinion, such as lemon juice, peanuts, fish sauce, cilantro, shrimp, and more.  The following ginger salad recipe is no exception.  I have an earlier post for Vietnamese Lotus Stem Salad recipe in this blog as well if you are interested.

Who would have thought of using ginger as one of the main ingredients in a salad, I have always use it as a flavoring ingredient in steam fish, stews, or stir fry but never in a salad.  When I was first introduced to it by my friend, Jasmine, who was born in Burma, I liked it right away.  It gives a very different aroma, texture and flavor to the salad that I never had before.  Of course, there are variations of ginger salad recipe but this one is Jasmine's version of it and I have made this salad many times over.

 Ingredients:

• 1 jar pickled ginger strips, you can get it in Asian markets, sometimes it is called pickled young ginger, typically the product is from Thailand.  Rinse in water and drain.  I usually use the whole jar and save the leftover.  You can also use Japanese pickled ginger for sushi (the non-colored one), use food processor to rough chop the ginger a bit
• 5 tbsp fried garlic, you can also get it ready made, available in most Asian markets
• 5 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• 5 tbsp roasted, unsalted peanuts - rough crushed
• 5 tbsp lightly roasted shredded coconuts, not the sweet kind, it is also typically found in Asian markets
• 2-3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (optional)
• 1 thinly sliced jalapeno pepper (optional)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
• 1 carrot, shredded/julienne cut (optional) 

For the dressing:

• 2 to 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 3 tbsp or to taste fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp or to taste fish sauce (you can leave this out if you wish)

Mix the salad ingredients with the dressing right before serving

Tip: start with less salt and less lemon juice, you can always add more.